A South Jersey community is in mourning after a youth football coach and a 9-year-old football player were killed in a crash near a park in Vineland on Thursday.
Witnesses told NBC10 the crash occurred around 6 p.m. near Maple Avenue and Becker Drive near the Joseph E. Romano Sports Complex. Addiel Ortiz, a 31-year-old corrections officer, father of 4, and coach of the youth football team the Vineland Blitz, was riding his motorcycle to a game. At the same time, an Upper Township woman was driving her car west on Maple Avenue while her son, 9-year-old Easton Beisler, a youth football player with the Upper Township Indians, was inside.
Both vehicles collided, killing Ortiz as well as Beisler. Witnesses told NBC10 there was a heavy glare from the sun at the time of the crash.
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“I couldn’t see that well and I was four cars behind her so she probably didn’t see him coming and he may not have seen her coming or did and tried to stop,” Gandalf Sollenberger, an official with the Vineland Blitz, told NBC10.
The Upper Township Indians paid tribute to Beisler on their Facebook page on Friday. The team also organized a GoFundMe page to raise money for the boy’s family.
Loved ones placed red and black balloons as well as flowers near the scene of the crash.
The Ocean City Red Raiders also asked their fans to wear black and yellow during a scheduled game Friday night to pay tribute to Beisler and the Upper Township Indians. Meanwhile, all games that were scheduled for the weekend between the Vineland Blitz and Upper Township Indians have been canceled.
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Ocean City v. Lenape game shows support
At a high school football game between Ocean City and Lenape teams, fans showed that Upper Township and Vineland Blitz are not alone in this time of tragedy.
The crowd was cheering for their Ocean City High School Raiders, but instead of the usual red, white and black colors, many wore black and yellow.
"I wanted to come out and support the raiders tonight and then I found out about the tragedy yesterday," Keith Grim said.
It was a fitting tribute to the nearby Upper Township and its youth football program hurting right now. The team, known for its black and yellow colors, lost their young player Easton Beisler in the car crash in Vineland.
